Argument selection and case marking in Korean

The main purpose of this thesis is to figure out how syntactic argument selection and case marking in general are determined in Korean. My hypothesis is that syntax alone may not provide the final answer in this inquiry, but that we may find the answer in the semantics, or in the relationship between the semantics and the syntax. The basic assumption is that the meaning of the predicate regulates the number of arguments and their syntactic properties.;The grammar is organized with four Levels of Structure over which various pieces of the information of a lexical item are represented, including Semantic Structure, Argument Structure, Function Structure, and Constituent Structure. These independent levels are present simultaneously, and are associated with each other in a principled way, which is called 'linking'. This thesis, which investigates what kind of a semantic information is relevant to the organization of Function Structure in Korean, is thus a study on the linking between Semantic Structure and Argument Structure on the one hand, and between Argument Structure and Function Structure on the other.;Chapter 2 attempts to find some 'behavioral properties' of unequivocal instances of grammatical subjects and objects in Korean. The result will be employed as tests for the controversial cases and ultimately confirms the theoretical relevance of grammatical subjecthood and objecthood. Chapter 3 attempts to figure out the primary semantic factor which determines Function Structure. I will introduce two semantic notions: a Determinant and a Determinee. The former is close to the notion of a Cause, and the latter picks out the Affected entity in the aspectual sense. Chapters 4 and 5 propose the linking principles in terms of the Determinant/Determinee, and apply them to predicates in Korean, in order to determine argument selection and case marking. Chapter 6 compares the present approach with other works, and Chapter 7 concludes this thesis by briefly considering possible extensions of the proposed analysis.